University of Virginia Library

35. Delorme, Philibert.

NOVVELLES / INVENTIONS / POVR BIEN BASTIR ET / A
PETITS FRAIZ, TROVVEES / N'AGVERES PAR PHILIBERT
DE / L'orme Lyonnois, Architecte, Con-/seiller & Aumosnier ordinaire /
du feu Roy Henry, / & Abbé de S. Eloy / les Noyon. / A PARIS, /
De l'Imprimerie de Hierosme de Marnef, & / Guillaume Cauellat, au
mont S. Hilaire / à l'enseigne du Pelican. / 1576.

Folio. Title page (1 leaf); dedication (2 leaves); letter to reader (3 unnumbered
pp.); poem (1 unnumbered p.); text (1-94); table of contents
(2 leaves); colophon (1 leaf). Full-page woodcuts appear on pp.
12, 18, 26, 30, 32, 35, 42, 44, 50, 52, 55, 57, 66, 69, 72, 78, 83, and 85, and
numerous woodcut figures appear in the text.

Philibert Delorme, or de l'Orme (ca.1510-70) was born at Lyons, the
son of a master workman, Jehan de l'Orme, who taught him the arts of

building. He then studied in Italy and returned to France under the
patronage of Cardinal du Bellay. In 1545 he was maistre architect et
conducteur général des bastiments et édifices, ouvrages, et fortifications
in Brittany, under royal appointment. By 1548 he was at Fontainbleau
under Henri II, but he lost his appointments in 1559. A French judgment
of Delorme calls him "un des plus grands maitres en l'art de bâtir, non
seulement de France, mais du monde entire."

The first edition of this work was in 1561, and the dedication in the
1576 edition is still dated September 8, 1561 (see Plate XXII). The book
is primarily a study of timber and timber framing, especially for large,
and often barrel-vault-shaped, roofs. It first examines the best kinds of
wood and then progresses into the uses of wood in framing. Delorme's
other book, Le premier tome de l'architecture, 1567, is an entirely different
text.

On the back of the drawing of the framing plan of the dome of the
Rotunda for the University of Virginia (see Plate XXIII), Jefferson
noted "on the top of the wall lay a curbed plate, in Delorme's manner,
consisting of 4. thicknesses of 3.i. each. 22.i. wide, pieces 12.f. long,
breaking joints every 3.f. bolted through with bolts of iron having a nut
& screw at their end. On this curved plate the ribs of the roof are to rest."
He also specifies on the same drawing that "the ribs are to be 4. thicknesses
of 1.i. plank, in pieces 4.f. long, breaking joints at every foot."
There are several illustrations in Delorme showing similar constructions
(pp. 12, 18, 32, 35, and 42), but the illustration on page 14 shows a rib
made up of short pieces of wood such as Jefferson specified (see Plate
XXIV).

The book was ordered for the University in the section on "Architecture"
of the want list but was not received during Jefferson's lifetime,
although he wrote General Joseph Smith, June 21, 1825: "I was much
indebted to you for the kind loan of De Lorme's Architecture. It is now
packed up in readiness to be returned. It is one of those of the Catalogue
given to Mr. Hilliard, and which he would probably be very willing to
take at a reasonable price" (U. Va. Library).

Jefferson sold his own copy to Congress. Kimball (p. 90) says it
was acquired between 1785 and 1789. A duplicate has only recently entered
the library's collections, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Foundation.

U. Va.

*NA2517.D4.1576

M

Sowerby 4183

Plate XXII. From No. 35. Title page.

Plate XXIII. Jefferson's specifications for the framing of the Rotunda, University
of Virginia (N-332, recto).

Plate XXIV. From No. 35. "Comme les pieces des Courbes se monstrent quand
ells sont toutes assembles" (p. 14).